


all the magic we made

by fransunflower



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Adopted Children, Babies, Birthday, Birthday Fluff, Birthday Presents, Children, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Funny, Marriage, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:29:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27786025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fransunflower/pseuds/fransunflower
Summary: C.J. hates surprised. But Danny doesn't think she'll mind this one all that much.
Relationships: Danny Concannon/C. J. Cregg
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	all the magic we made

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Evy because it was her birthday and I couldn't get her a real present. I love you and I hope you like this because it was written for you and only you.

The smell of coffee woke her up in the morning. Her eyes fluttered open and she turned around, reaching over to the other side of the bed. It was cold. C.J. sat up and looked around the room. The alarm clock on her nightstand read 09:15. She practically jumped out of bed and headed for the door.

“Go back to bed!” C.J. stopped dead in her tracks, her hand hovering over the doorhandle.

“Danny?” C.J. stayed on the other side of the door.

“Go back to bed.” She could hear the smile in his voice.

“Where’s A.J.?” Seconds after the words left her mouth, C.J. heard the toddler mumble something to herself in the other room.

“C.J., go back to bed,” Danny instructed. C.J. sighed and reluctantly turned around, making her way back into the bedroom. She crawled under the covers and waited. And waited. And waited. It was probably no more than two or three minutes but C.J. didn’t like the anticipating of it all. Or just the sitting around really. Or, come to think of it, surprises of any sort.  
Finally, the door opened, and Danny came in, cup of coffee in one hand, A.J. clutching his other.

“Happy birthday,” he half said, half sang as he handed her the cup before lifting A.J. up to sit on the bed.

“Thank you,” C.J. mouthed and put the cup down next to her. She reached out and placed A.J. in her lap.

“Havvy bisday, Mommy,” the little girl said and clapped her hands together.

“Happy birthday, Mommy,” Danny repeated before softly kissing C.J.’s lips. A.J. gave a little displeased squeal and C.J. pulled away, her hand still on Danny’s cheek, stroking his beard.

“Thank you,” she mumbled. “And thank _you_.” She placed a kiss on A.J.’s forehead. 

“How’re you feeling? Wiser? More mature?” Danny asked handing the coffee back to her.

“I’ve always been wise.”

“Eh.” C.J. playfully hit his shoulder.

“Ey! I am.”

“Sure, honey.” C.J. shot him a look over the edge of her coffee cup.

“It’s my birthday. You have to be nice to me.”

“I made you coffee,” Danny pointed out. A.J. clapped her hands, nodding eagerly as if she knew exactly what they were talking about. 

“You always make me coffee.”

“I made you breakfast as well,” Danny said, and smile crept across C.J.’s face.

“You did?” Danny tugged her hand and helped her stand up. She handed him the coffee cup and placed A.J. on her hip, letting the little girl grip her finger, examining it closely. When they entered the kitchen, she could smell the pancakes and the maple syrup in the air. Danny walked over to the counter and C.J. sat their daughter down in her highchair. She messed up A.J.’s hair before kissing the top of her head. C.J. made her way over to Danny and gently wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face in his neck.

“Thank you,” she mumbled. Danny turned around in her arms and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. He gently kissed her, his hands on her neck, pulling her closer.

“Go sit down,” Danny whispered against her lips. C.J. nudged his nose with her own before doing as she was told. Danny placed a small bowl of fruit in front of A.J., informing C.J. that she had already eaten. A.J. grabbed an apple from the bowl and shoved the whole thing into her mouth, a self-satisfied smile decorating her face. Danny placed a plate of pancakes in front of C.J. before sitting down himself.

“Danny, you really didn’t have to-” C.J. began but Danny cut her off.

“You say that every year.”

“And every year you ignore my wish…” C.J. smiled and digged into her pancake.

“You don’t seem to mad about it,” Danny pointed out as she happily munched on her breakfast.

“It’s all right,” C.J. agreed. Danny shoved a small present on the table closer to her.

“Open it,” he told her, a childish smile playing on his lips. 

“ _Danny!_ You really didn’t have to get me anything.” C.J. could feel herself blush. Even after all these years, she still wasn’t quite used to someone thinking about her the way Danny did.

“C.J., will you stop? It’s your birthday, I get to spoil you a little bit.” C.J. rolled her eyes as she pulled the ribbon off the small box. She flipped open the card and let her eyes ghost over it.

_Happy birthday, my love.  
_ _Your favorite fish boy._

C.J. laughed and smiled at Danny, a little twinkle in her eye. She opened the box and found a small necklace inside. The pendant was a small, simple golden fish and C.J. held it up for A.J. to see. The girl looked at it with big eyes.

“Fish!” she said happily and pointed at the pendant.

“Yes,” C.J. agreed, smiling at Danny. “Like the one on Mommy’s desk.”

“Gail!” A.J. clapped her hands together.

“Yes, Gail, that’s right.” Danny stood up and walked over to them. C.J. handed the necklace to him so he could help her put it on. Her fingers delicately traced the necklace when it touched her skin. Danny leaned down to kiss her cheek but C.J. turned her head and his lips met hers. “Thank you,” she mumbled. Danny’s response was a kiss on C.J.’s nose.

After breakfast, the phone rang. C.J. was sitting on the sofa with A.J. in her lap, making funny faces at the toddler. The little girl laughed delighted when Danny came over and handed C.J. the phone.

“It’s Toby,” Danny mouthed. C.J. put the phone between her cheek and shoulder, both her hands still holding A.J..

“Tobus!” C.J. exclaimed.

“Happy birthday, C.J.,” Toby said on the other end of the line.

“What? That’s all I get? You won’t sing for me?” C.J. teased. “Even just a little bit?”

“C.J.?”

“Yes?”

“Have you met me?” C.J. could hear the smile in his voice.

“Fair.”

“How’s A.J.?”

“It’s my birthday and the first thing you want to talk about is my _daughter_?” A.J. took C.J.’s finger in her chubby little hands and held it close to her face.

“Well… yes,” Toby stated matter-of-factly.

“A.J.’s good,” C.J. went on, stroking the child’s cheek with her free hand. “She’s sitting right here.”

“Oh, C.J. please don’t put your baby on the phone, you know how I hate it when people do that.” C.J. couldn’t help but laugh out loud at Toby’s usual grumpiness.

“A.J., do you want to say hi to Uncle Toby?” C.J. asked then, fully prepared to hand the phone over to A.J., if only to annoy her friend.

“I’m hanging up now, C.J.,” Toby said.

“Bye, Tobus. See you next week?” He would be in town for a few days and even though he had declined the invitation to stay with her and Danny, C.J. had managed to get him to agree to come over for dinner at their house.

“Yeah. See you then. Happy birthday, C.J..”

“Thanks,” she said. “And thank you for calling.”

“Of course.” She heard the familiar click and he was gone. Danny came over and sat down next to her on the sofa, his hand immediately flying up to play with a strand of her hair. She smiled at him, only taking her eyes off their daughter for a second before turning back to her. She had Danny’s red locks and blue eyes but there was something about her that reminded C.J. of her own mother. 

“She’s beginning to look more like you,” Danny said as if he’d read her mind. C.J. shook her head.

“No.”

“Sure she does,” Danny insisted.

“ _No_ ,” A.J. echoed C.J. and clapped her hands together.

“See? Even your daughter agrees,” C.J. pointed out. Danny leaned in; his face close to hers.

“She’s one, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” he said before kissing C.J.’s cheek.

“Fifteen months, actually,” C.J. reminded him, lifting A.J. so she was standing up in her lap.

“I thought we might take a walk,” Danny said then and got up from the couch. “And I’ve got a surprise for you later.” C.J. smiled and got up, A.J. resting on her hip.

“A surprise?”

“Yeah.” Danny smirked and kissed first A.J.’s and then C.J’s forehead.

“What is it?” C.J. wanted to know as she handed her daughter to Danny while she started to get ready.

“I’m not going to tell you,” Danny laughed. C.J. watched – as she put on her shoes – how A.J. reached up her small hands to stroke Danny’s beard.

“ _Danny_!” C.J. whined and stood up, taking A.J. from him so he could get ready to go out. “I hate surprises. You know that!”

“You don’t hate surprised,” Danny said as he searched for his keys.

“No, you’re right. If I know what they are, I don’t mind them that much.”

“That misses the whole point of surprises,” he exclaimed.

“Well, in that case; I hate surprises.”

“No supvises,” A.J. repeated and shook her head.

“Will you stop agreeing with everything your mother says?” Danny said and messed up A.J.’s hair.

“Oh, shush. She can agree with whoever she likes. Especially if it’s me.” C.J. playfully smacked Danny’s shoulder with her free hand and A.J. nodded eagerly as if she was completely aware of what they were talking about. “Danny, I think you’ll just have to live the fact that she’ll always be my girl.” C.J. shrugged and reached for the door handle. Danny’s hand rested on the small of her back as they stepped outside.

“I’m fine with that. As long as _you’re_ still mine.” C.J. simply rolled her eyes at him, not even bothering to respond to that, as she put A.J. down in her stroller. The little girl immediately reached for the goldfish teddy she kept in there, holding it in her tiny hands. She looked up a C.J. and held the teddy out to her. C.J. smiled and nodded as she pushed the stroller down the street.

“So… where’re you taking me?” C.J. wanted to know as Danny came up behind her.

“I thought we might go to the park. I’ll buy you ice cream or something.” His hand was still resting comfortably on the small of her back, so familiar these days. 

“Ice cream or something? Sounds like you’ve really thought this through,” C.J. teased, hardly ever taking her eyes off their daughter.

“I so have! I’ve got it all planned out,” Danny insisted.

“You don’t have any idea what you’re doing, do you?”

“Not really, no,” he admitted as they turned around the corner into the park.

They strolled through it quietly and listened to A.J. talk to herself and the stuffed animal in her stroller. When they reached the small ice cream van, Danny bought her two scoops and made a point of tapping her nose before handing it to her. C.J. giggled, wiping the tip of her nose with the back of her hand. A.J. protested loudly when she wasn’t offered something to eat, so Danny got her a little something as well. When both girls were happily eating their ice cream, they sat down on a park bench. Danny got A.J. out of her stroller and placed her in his lap. C.J. watched, studying them carefully, never wanting this moment to end. They looked so alike as they sat there on the bench, talking to each other. Well… it was mostly Danny who was doing the talking. C.J. couldn’t help but tear up a bit, hurriedly blinking the tears away. Never, in her wildest dreams, would she have thought it possible to be sitting here, with her husband and daughter. She played with the ring on her finger, carefully tracing the diamond. One year ago, she had been pregnant, scared that she wouldn’t know what to do once the baby came. Danny had assured her everything would be alright, that she would do an amazing job. She wouldn't believe him back then but now she thought she was doing alright. Not perfect, but she was trying her best. Danny cast a look on his wristwatch and placed A.J. back in her stroller.

“We better get back,” he said and helped C.J. stand.

“Oh, right. Your surprise.” C.J. smirked and slipped her hand into his.

“Yes. My surprise.” Danny kissed her cheek before leading them through the park.

A.J. fell asleep on their way back and C.J. carefully carried her inside and put her in her crib. She leaned over her and stroked her daughter’s cheek. She stirred a little in her sleep but didn’t wake. C.J. tucked A.J. in and made sure to place the stuffed dinosaur the Bartlets had sent A.J. for her first birthday next to her. She quietly left the room, leaving the door open just in case. When she entered the kitchen, Danny was on the phone, but he hung up quickly when he saw her. He walked over to C.J. and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“How’s the birthday girl?” he asked, kissing her nose.

“She’s all right,” C.J. told him, playing with the buttons on his shirt. “Where’s your surprise then?” Danny titled his head and smiled at her.

“Well… It should be here in ten minutes,” Danny said.

“Yeah?” C.J. drummed her fingers impatiently against his chest. Danny nodded and pulled her even closer. Their faces were only inches apart but before Danny could close the distance between them, C.J. turned her head. “What is it?” she whined. “Tell meeeee.” Danny simply shook his head. “You’re no fun.” C.J. stuck out her lower lip and batted her eyes at him.

“Where’s the fun in giving everything away?” Danny asked and kissed her nose before turning away from her and walking over to where he had left his briefcase. “I can give you this though,” he said and handed her a stack of papers.

“What's this?” C.J. laughed and let her eyes ghost over it.

“The paperwork came through a bit early. Might have called a certain former president and have him pull a few strings.” A giant smile spread across C.J.’s face and she could feel herself getting teary eyed.

“I thought it wouldn’t be for another month or so,” she whispered.

“It helps to know Josiah Bartlet.” C.J. looked up from the papers, meeting his gaze.

“Thank you,” she breathed, putting the papers down on the coffee table before walking over to him and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“That’s not all,” Danny said as he looked out the window and saw a car pull up in the driveway.

“No?”

“No.” Danny squeezed her hand and walked over to the door. C.J. followed closely behind him, hovering over his shoulder.

“Danny, what’s going on?” C.J. demanded to know as Danny unlocked the front door and stepped out into the afternoon sun.

“You’ll see,” was all he told her. C.J. playfully smacked his arm, hating that he knew something she didn’t. A woman got out of the car and opened the door in the back. The sun blinded her and C.J. had to put her hand up to shield her eyes. When she realized what was happening, it flew down, covering her mouth.

“ _Danny_ ,” she whispered, unable to formulate any other words whatsoever. Two small children shyly followed the woman up to the front steps. The girl was five – C.J. knew – but she looked a lot older as she protectively held her little brother’s hand. The boy, only three, clutched a small teddy in his free hand, looking nervously from his sister to Danny and then finally at C.J..

“Good afternoon,” Danny said to the woman from Child Services.

“Hello.” She flashed them a friendly smile. She went on to introduce herself but C.J. wasn’t paying attention, she was too busy beaming at the children. When it seemed like the woman had stopped talking, C.J. kneeled down so she was on eye level with the girl. 

“Sophia, is it?” she asked, smiling kindly at her. The girl nodded, her eyes wide. “I’m C.J. but you can call me anything you like.” Sophia smiled shyly as her brother took a step towards C.J..

“Mama?” he asked, his voice barely more than a whisper. C.J. couldn’t stop the tears from welling in her eyes but she quickly swallowed them down.

“Yeah,” she told him. “You can call me Mama.” Sophia still looked like she wasn’t quite sure about the whole situation, but she loosened the grip on her James’ hand a little and smiled with a bit more confidence. Danny kneeled down next to C.J. and offered both children a kind smile.

“Can we call you Daddy?” James asked, carefully. Sophia eyed Danny carefully. 

“Of course you can,” he assured him, holding out his hand. “Do you want to see your rooms?” Both children nodded and C.J. picked up James while Danny took Sophia’s tiny hand. The woman from Child Services said something else and C.J. was grateful that Danny was there to take care of it since C.J. was busy watching James make his stuffed animal talk. When she was gone, Danny closed the door behind her, and they lead the children to their rooms. They reached Sophia’s first. One wall was painted dark blue and C.J. had put up glow in the dark stars on it and on the ceiling over her bed. There was a poster of a rocket ship taking off on one of the walls and even the duvet had astronauts on it.

“I heard you like space,” C.J. said. Sophia’s mouth hung open, her eyes wide with amazement. She only nodded, taking a step towards her tiny desk.

“Is this for me?” she asked, picking up a notebook with the solar system on the front. C.J. nodded, glancing at Danny. He had been the one to find it in a small shop around the corner. “I’ve never had my own room before,” Sophia whispered.

“It’s all yours,” Danny assured her. C.J. could see the girl fighting hard not to cry. James clapped his hands together in C.J.’s arms.

“My room now!” he exclaimed. C.J. couldn’t help but laugh.

“Yes. Quite right,” she agreed. They walked down the hall into the next room. It had been Danny’s study before, but they had turned it into a room for the three-year-old. Danny figured he could work just as well from the kitchen or really anywhere in the house. C.J. put James down on the floor and let him run over to the bookshelf they had put up next to his desk. They had filled it with children’s books C.J. couldn’t wait to read for him at night and some that just had pictures he could look at on his own. The wall by his window had been painted orange, his favorite color.

“Do you like it?” Danny asked and James only nodded eagerly.

“You can sleep in Sophia’s room together for a while if you want to. If you need some time to get used to the house and don’t want to be alone,” C.J. chipped in. “And you can always come to us during the night if you get scared or anything.”

After they had shown the kids the rest of the house, A.J. woke up and C.J. got her out of her crib, taking her into the living room where Danny was sitting with James on his lap, Sophia beside him. C.J. sat down next to her with A.J. bouncing on her knee. Immediately, the little girl reached out her chubby hands to Sophia, giggling with delight. Sophia looked nervously at C.J. who nodded encouragingly at her. She let A.J. take her finger and laughed along with the toddler. James sat shyly in Danny’s lap but when he saw what his sister was doing, he got a little more confident. He climbed from Danny’s lap and stood next to Sophia, making funny faces at A.J. and getting her to laugh. C.J. looked up and caught Danny’s eye. She smiled at him, her eyes glistening with tears. 

“ _Thank you_ ,” she mouthed. Danny took her hand in his and gave it a tiny squeeze.

“Happy birthday,” he whispered. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this! Comments are always appreciated!!!


End file.
